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Wednesday, September 20, 2017

Philosophies at War

In 1943 at the
height of the Second World War, Fulton J. Sheen (1895-1979) published Philosophies at War.The book gave Sheen’s perspective on the real
source of the conflict.A thematic
follow-up to such earlier works as Religion
Without God (1928), and Freedom Under
God (1940), the work is not well known, and is very rare.

Sheen: Trying to make heaven on earth creates hell.

A look through Philosophies at War reveals why the book
is not better known.It goes directly
contrary to the philosophy that today pervades organized religion (Church),
government (State), and even domestic society (Family).As Sheen summed up the situation,

It is simply
impossible to have millions of men in the world living according to their pagan
principles, and not produce the modern chaotic world in which we live. This
idea of a “Heaven here below” is the surest way to make a hell upon earth. The
universe thus becomes a multiplicity of self-centered little deities; the coat
of arms of each is a big letter “I,” and when they talk their “I”’s are always
getting closer together.

In the light of
the foregoing explanation of man the choice before the world is this: Will we
build a New Order on the totalitarian assumption that man is a tool of the
State? Or will we retain the Old Order of the secularist culture of the last
two hundred years, that man is only an economic animal? Or will we build a New
Order on the Christian assumption, that man is a creature made to the image and
likeness of God and therefore one for whom economics, politics, and society
exist as a means to an eternal destiny beyond the historical perspective of
planets, space, and time? (Fulton J. Sheen, Philosophies
at War.New York: Charles Scribner’s
Sons, 1943, 94-95.)

As Sheen saw it,
the great struggle is not the economic, social, or political conflict between
capitalism and socialism.Rather, it is
between two competing philosophies.

The first is one
in which man, collective or individual, is the be-all and end-all of creation
and the whole meaning of life. In this
philosophy, individuals end up as tools of the State or of the strongest
individual or group.The second is one
in which God is the center, and the State is a tool of man.

Hobbes: The State is a "Mortall God."

Ultimately
(according to Sheen) there is no difference between individualism and
collectivism, or between their economic applications, capitalism and socialism,
respectively.When ordinary people lack capital
ownership (property), and therefore power, even (or especially) laissez faire capitalism devolves into
socialism and completes the evolution of the State into the Hobbesian “Mortall
God.”As Sheen explained,

Given the errant
impulses, the frustrated selfish existences, the distorted human goals which
these partial views of man engender, there is only one way to arrest that
chaos, and that is by organizing it, and the organization of chaos is
Socialism. The individualism and egotism which a distorted concept of man
begets leave him alone and isolated, and to overcome this isolation there is
only one non-Christian solution possible: the subordination of these rebellious
atoms to a compulsory principle in the hands of the State. Socialism is the
secularized, atheized version of a community and a fraternity of man which
Christian love alone can engender. It is the new form into which man will bring
his tortured and isolated personality, in vain quest for peace. By abusing his
freedom under Liberalism, man, unless he returns to a knowledge of his true
nature, will fall under the compulsion of Socialism. He will think less and
less of freedom, though he may talk much about it, for a man talks about his
health when he is unhealthy. His end will be the trading of his freedom for a
false security from the wet-nurse of the State. (Ibid., 96-97.)

This is no more
than what Sheen had been saying since the publication of his doctoral thesis, God and Intelligence in Modern Philosophy
(1925).Modern man, by attempting to
create Heaven on Earth, has succeeded only in creating a living Hell.

The Heaven you want to create may be everyone else's Hell.

How?By thinking that this life, “man,” is the
be-all and end-all, Collective Man takes the place of God.God is relegated to a supporting role.Each person then creates his or her own God.

Creating one’s
own God enables each person to condemn all others for any disagreement by
declaring, “My God wouldn’t do that.”Of course someone’s private God “wouldn’t do
that.”The speaker is to all intents and
purposes God.He or She rules over His
or Her own personal heaven, which rapidly turns into everyone else’s hell.

But is the
creation of a personal or collective heaven here on earth the meaning and
purpose of life?Sheen would say no.

Sheen, a Catholic
priest, necessarily expressed himself in Christian terms.The point, however, is equally valid for
everyone, Christian or non-Christian, believer, agnostic, or atheist.

This in part
explains Sheen’s universal appeal and immense popularity among people of other
faiths and those with no faith.He was
able to help them understand the meaning and purpose of life.